Jack Miers is someone who likes to stay on the go; and while this year has been challenging, he’s had plenty to keep him busy.
This season, the versatile playmaker has been playing well with Valleys Diehards in the In Safe Hands Brisbane Rugby League A Grade competition, while also working with Norths Devils in development, allowing him to stay connected with his team mates.
“I have been keeping busy and trying to keep training and keep the routine going,” Miers said.
“Norths offered to let us train there two or three days a week … (so) I still see most of the boys because I am lucky enough to be working at the club.
“Some of the boys I know have gone on different paths (this year after the Intrust Super Cup competition was cancelled) and are doing Brazilian jujitsu and a few others are doing other things; it’s been a bit weird, but everyone’s been keeping active which is good.
“I was keen on playing... I get really bored quite easily, so I was keen on playing... so I am just happy to be playing footy at Valleys at the moment.
“(The competition) is a bit different from last year, because last year we trained a lot more as a group, but this year is obviously a bit disturbed due to COVID, so there was not as much fluency at trainings with our training together.
“The first few rounds it was more of a ‘get-to-know-each-other’ and get to know how each other plays kind of thing; but everything is coming along nicely at the moment, so that’s good.
“I have been lucky enough to play with Princey (Scott Prince) and he makes it quite enjoyable and we have little bit of banter going between me and him, so that is good.
“We secured a top two spot, so we get a week off, I think it’s much needed, a bit of a freshen up before we go into finals, and hopefully go one better than year.”
In his development role, Miers will help facilitate a special coaching clinic being run next week by Norths Devils for girls aged 12-16.
Register here for the clinic which will be held at Pathion Park next Tuesday, September 29 from 10am to 1pm and also includes lunch.
“I pretty much help out with all the development (with Norths Devils), I got to schools and represent the Devils,” the former Queensland Rangers and Queensland Universities representative said.
“We have a new 'Belong' program where we talk about healthy choices in food, trying to limit screen time, trying to get kids to be active and enjoy themselves and I am lucky enough to be repping a Devils shirt while doing it.
“Last school holidays, we had a bit of an under 13 to under 16 clinic which went really well, and we have a girls clinic coming up.
“The clinic will just be pretty much essential skills, because what we have seen across all juniors, girls and boys, is they need help with catch-and-pass, with marker work; we’ll do a little bit of defence, but we can’t do too much due to COVID and we have to do COVID-safe programs, so we leave that up to the club coaches.
“We don’t want to take over, we just want to give them some tips.
“We focus a lot on our passing and co-ordination skills, and we will probably also give a chat about the Belong program and on their choices with their food, water and trying to keep active.
“We will probably show some clips on what we do (as a team), just to give a bit of game knowledge.
“With us, we push around the ball, so to try to help them learn a bit more about footy to get better, without overloading them with too much.”
Given the nature of his work, Miers has contemplated turning his hand to coaching in the future, but said there were still plenty of games to play yet.
“I am not sure exactly what I want to do yet (in the future)... coaching has come up a little bit for me, because I am helping out and I like helping out kids and helping them become better footballers and watching them grow,” Miers said.
“I do a lot with Wavell boys at the high school there and watching them progress … so that’s rewarding, without doing too much, but just passing on what you know.
“Coaching is something I would want to get into eventually, but I want to focus on playing and when that’s all done, I’ll probably look into coaching.
“(Mentoring has) been a big thing we do at Norths, Jack Ahearn, our captain, he mentored me and I learnt off him and if can pass that down to other players, that would be beneficial to them, that’s helping them.”
Next year, Miers hopes to be back with the Devils and helping to continue to grow a culture that has been building in recent seasons.
“I think I will be at Norths again, I hope so, that would really be a positive – the crew there are really good,” Miers said.
“On and off the field, they have helped me massively and it’s just a good culture there around the club, all the boys like playing with each other, showing up, training with each other.
“We have got almost unlimited access to the facilities (now)... I am there two or three times a week, some of the other boys are there four or five; we try to keep it to our ‘normal’ routine, our normal trainings of Mondays, Wednesdays, so that’s skills, bit of wrestling and things like that.
“We even have boys who are not playing (rugby league) this year just getting their bodies for next year and they come to the majority of our BRL games, just to support each other.
"It’s a really good vibe we have at the club.”